Today in Iraq

War News for April 9, 2004 Bring 'em on: Bulgarian base camp near Karbala under mortar fire. Bring 'em on: Fifteen Iraqis killed in fighting in central Karbala. Bring 'em on: US troops retake Kut. Bring 'em on: Fighting continues in Fallujah despite US cease-fire. Bring 'em on: More fighting reported in Baquba. Bring 'em on: Insurgents cut Baghdad - Fallujah supply route at Abu Ghraib. Bring 'em on: Heavy fighting reported in Najaf. Bring 'em on: US forces abandon police stations and town hall in Sadr City. Bring 'em on: Nine killed in attack on US fuel convoy near Abu Ghraib. Bring 'em on: One US soldier killed in fighting in Samarra. Bring 'em on: Two US Marines killed in fighting near Fallujah. Bring 'em on: Four Italian, two American hostages seized in separate incidents nearBaghdad . Bring 'em on: Mortar attack in central Baghdad. Bring 'em on: One British soldier killed, two wounded in fighting near Amarah. Bring 'em on: Spanish helicopter kills seven Iraqis at mosque near Kufa. Bring 'em on: Casualties reported as US patrol ambushed by roadside bomb near Hit. Bring 'em on: Three Spanish soldiers wounded in ambush near Diwaniyah. Bring 'em on: Spanish and Salvadoran base "pounded" by mortar fire near Kufa. Bring 'em on: US mercenary killed in fighting near Hit. Bring 'em on: British mercenary killed in fighting near Hit. And the security company lied to the victim's father because at least one other employee was killed in the same incident. Perhaps an alert UK reader could notify the local newspaper of the company's deceit. Moqtada Sadr addresses Lieutenant AWOL. "'I address my enemy Bush. You are now fighting an entire nation, from south to north, from east to west, and we advise you to withdraw from Iraq,' Sadr said in a message read at the main mosque in this central shrine town by one of his aides. 'I call on America not to confront the Iraqi revolution,' said Sheikh Jaber al-Khafagi, as he addressed worshippers gathered for the main weekly prayers in this Sadr stronghold." Bremer's ICDC cuts and runs. British contractor missing near Nasiriyah. South Korea bans civilian travel to Iraq. Lieutenant AWOL's "greatest coalition ever built" falling apart. ICDC members lured mercenaries butchered in Fallujah into ambush. 450 Iraqis kklilled, 1,000 wounded in Fallujah fighting. IGC interior minister resigns. Veterans' trust fund in trouble. "The Michigan Veterans Trust Fund, which was set up with $50 million during World War II, has lost $4 million in principal in the past year and, in a period of low interest rates, is providing less funding for county veterans offices to spend. Also affecting the fund is a separate education program for children and families of veterans; the program was moved into the MVTF a few years ago but without additional funding, Heinel said." CPA wants al-Jazeera correspondents out of Fallujah. "As Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of U.S. military operations in Iraq, was speaking by phone on al-Jazeera and insisting that American forces declared a unilateral ceasefire in Fallujah, the channel was airing live images of continued air raids by F16 fighter jets on residential neighborhoods of the town." Al-Jazeera made Kimmit look bad. Good-bye, Saddam. Hello, Moqtada. "In a symbol of the state of Iraq a year after the US invasion, a portrait of Muqtada al-Sadr - the radical Shia cleric whose militia has rebelled across the south - was today hung on the plinth in Firdous Square, where one year ago today marines toppled a statue of ousted leader Saddam Hussein. " Rummy knows best. "America's top commander in Iraq has warned Washington that he will not be 'the fall guy' if violence in the country worsens, it emerged yesterday, as word leaked out that US generals are 'outraged' by their lack of soldiers. America's generals consider current troop strengths of 130,000 in Iraq inadequate, reported the columnist Robert Novak, a doyen of the old-school Right in Washington...But officers who will not speak out in public let it be known that major reinforcements might be impossible to find. US forces are so overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan that 'there are simply no large units available and suitable for assignment', Novak wrote in his column in The Washington Post." Lieutenant AWOL enjoys his spring vacation. "Bush took his guests on a tour that included an 11-acre pond the president built and stocked with bass." Commentary Opinion: "The administration has no real plan on how to proceed. It doesn't know how many troops are needed. It doesn't know, in the long term, where they will come from. It doesn't know whether it can meet the June 30 deadline for turning over sovereignty to the Iraqis. (It doesn't know what sovereignty in this context even means. June 30 was an arbitrary date selected with this year's presidential campaign in mind.) It doesn't have a cadre of Iraqi leaders to accept the handoff of sovereignty. And so on." Casualty Reports Local story: Arkansas Guardsman killed in Iraq. Local story: Alabama soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Tennessee Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Florida Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Oklahoma soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: New Mexico Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Minnesota Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Indiana Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: North Dakota Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: California Marine killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.